Flux upcycling of spent NMC 111 to nickel-rich NMC cathodes in reciprocal ternary molten salts

Wang, Tao; Luo, Huimin; Fan, Juntian; Thapaliya, Bishnu P.; Bai, Yaocai; Belharouak, Ilias; Dai, Sheng

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2022.103801

Cited by 30 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…In addition, recycling can be upgraded to upcycling, which can change the chemistry of recycled cathode materials based on the market demand. For instance, low nickel NCM111 can be upcycled to NCM 622, [ 26 ] so that the energy density can be improved to fit the state‐of‐the‐art market demands. Another benefit of upcycling is converting polycrystals to single crystal.…”

Section: Global Challenges and Opportunities Ahead In The Lib Recyclingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Current Challenges in Efficient Lithium‐Ion Batteries’ Recycling: A Perspective

Gupta

et al. 2022

Global Challenges

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power density, [1] especially for electronic devices, electric vehicles (EVs), and grid storage systems. As a result, the global market of LIBs is expected to follow a rapid upward trend, projected to reach US$56 billion by 2024. [1c] The primary growth will be triggered by the massive EV production, which is expected to reach $253 million by 2030. [1c] The rising LIB utilization has increased the demand for critical raw materials such as lithium (Li), nickel (Ni), and cobalt (Co). However, most of these essential materials are regulated by specific countries. More than half of cobalt ore is mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo and refined in China, and about 80% of lithium is controlled by Australia and Chile. [2] This uneven distribution of raw materials and production areas has raised concerns about the global supply chain. As a result, lithium and cobalt prices are rising and fluctuating, and in the meantime, the geopolitics could lead to a monopoly of raw material supply by local governments. [3] Therefore, from a sustainability perspective, it is essential to establish a secondary supply of critical materials recovered from spent LIBs (from EVs, stationary storage batteries, and home appliances) and from the manufacturing wastes (trimming, end products, off-spec products, etc.) to mitigate the severity of this potential shortage.On the other hand, since LIBs can usually be used for 10 years on average, [3,4] the amount of spent LIBs is expected to reach more than 5 million tons by 2030. [5] The main components of LIBs are cathode materials (LiNi x Co y Mn z O 2 (0 < x, y, z <1, x + y + z = 1, known as NCM), LiCoO 2 (LCO), LiFePO 4 (LFP), etc.), anode materials (graphite), current collectors (aluminum (Al) and copper (Cu)), electrolyte salts such as lithium hexafluorophosphate (LiPF 6 ), organic solvents (ethylene carbonate (EC), diethyl carbonate (DEC), ethyl methyl carbonate (EMC), dimethyl carbonate (DMC), etc.). All these different components contain hazardous materials and result in metal, dust, organic, and fluorine contaminations. [6] Landfilling or incineration can harm ecosystems. For example, once the electrode materials enter the environment, metal ions from the cathode, carbon dust from the anode, strong alkali, and heavy metal ions from the electrolyte may cause severe environmental pollutions, hazards, etc., including raising the pH value of the soil, [7] and producing the toxic gases (HF, HCl, etc.). In addition, the metals and electrolytes in batteries can harm human health. For example, the cobalt may get into the human body via underground water and other channels, causing Li-ion battery (LIB) recycling has become an urgent need with rapid prospering of the electric vehicle (EV) industry, which has caused a shortage of material resources and led to an increasing amount of retired batteries. However, the global LIB recycling effort is hampered by various factors such as insufficient logistics, regulation, and technology readiness. Here, the challenges associated with LIB recycling...

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Section: Global Challenges and Opportunities Ahead In The Lib Recyclingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Current Challenges in Efficient Lithium‐Ion Batteries’ Recycling: A Perspective

Gupta

et al. 2022

Global Challenges

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“…The energy profile, voltage profile, phase structure and morphology of heated and non‐heated samples shown in Figure 9(a–e). Tao Wang and co‐workers [73] have developed a reciprocal ternary molten salts (RTMS) system for the direct upcycle of spent NMC 111 to Ni‐rich NMCs by adding suitable salts of Nickel and Lithium in stoichiometric ratio. After refluxed with RTMS the Ni rich cathode material was achieved in ambient pressure in oxygen atmosphere.…”

Section: Ionothermal and Molten Salt Process Of Relithiationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Retrieving Spent Cathodes from Lithium‐Ion Batteries through Flourishing Technologies

Raj

Sahoo

Nikoloski

et al. 2022

Batteries & Supercaps

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Batteries & Supercaps www.batteries-supercaps.org Review doi.org/10.1002/batt.202200418The inherent advancement of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) in electronic gadgets is expanding exponentially, and the ongoing surge of electric vehicles (EVS) in the near future will result in an unprecedented amount of lithium waste. Used cathode materials contain hazardous metal toxic, polymer binder, and electrolytes, posing a serious risk to the environment and public health. For socio-environmental reasons, it is required to recover all valuable metals or to immediately relithiate the used cathode materials by adding suitable salts in the stoichiometric ratio. As the consumption of batteries increases over time in daily life, recycling LIBs will become more and more crucial. Compared to the traditional hydrometallurgical and pyrometallurgical routes, direct recycling technologies can regenerate electrodes without using an intensive energy or chemicals, which saves money and reduces secondary waste. As a result, the authors emphasise direct relithiation methods for spent cathode relithiation, such as hydrothermal, ionothermal, electrochemical, and molten salts. In-depth analysis and discussion are also given to the aforementioned approaches. The deactivation, disintegration, and separation processes used in the physical processing of black mass and other constituents are discussed. We reviewed the obstacles, possible commercialization of technology, and recommendations to the reviewer for the developing ecologically friendly recycling technology in the near future toward the circular economy.

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“…Some nondestructive recycling strategies, for example, the direct recycling 7–14 and upcycling 15–21 , which recycle spent cathodes under mild conditions, have drawn increasing interest in recent years. Loss of active Li + and irreversible phase transitions from the layered structure are thought to be key factors responsible for cyclic performance fading; one deteriorates the reversible capacity while the other increases the internal resistance leading to voltage loss ( iR ) 22–24 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Upcycling of spent LiCoO₂ cathodes via nickel‐ and manganese‐doping

Zhang

Deng

et al. 2022

Carbon Energy

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Direct recycling has been regarded as one of the most promising approaches to dealing with the increasing amount of spent lithium-ion batteries (LIBs).However, the current direct recycling method remains insufficient to regenerate outdated cathodes to meet current industry needs as it only aims at recovering the structure and composition of degraded cathodes. Herein, a nickel (Ni) and manganese (Mn) co-doping strategy has been adopted to enhance LiCoO 2 (LCO) cathode for next-generation high-performance LIBs through a conventional hydrothermal treatment combined with short annealing approach. Unlike direct recycling methods that make no changes to the chemical composition of cathodes, the unique upcycling process fabricates a series of cathodes doped with different contents of Ni and Mn. The regenerated LCO cathode with 5% doping delivers excellent electrochemical performance with a discharge capacity of 160.23 mAh g −1 at 1.0 C and capacity retention of 91.2% after 100 cycles, considerably surpassing those of the pristine one (124.05 mAh g −1 and 89.05%). All results indicate the feasibility of such Ni-Mn co-doping-enabled upcycling on regenerating LCO cathodes.

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Flux upcycling of spent NMC 111 to nickel-rich NMC cathodes in reciprocal ternary molten salts

Cited by 30 publications

References 41 publications

Current Challenges in Efficient Lithium‐Ion Batteries’ Recycling: A Perspective

Current Challenges in Efficient Lithium‐Ion Batteries’ Recycling: A Perspective

Retrieving Spent Cathodes from Lithium‐Ion Batteries through Flourishing Technologies

Upcycling of spent LiCoO₂ cathodes via nickel‐ and manganese‐doping

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Flux upcycling of spent NMC 111 to nickel-rich NMC cathodes in reciprocal ternary molten salts

Cited by 30 publications

References 41 publications

Current Challenges in Efficient Lithium‐Ion Batteries’ Recycling: A Perspective

Current Challenges in Efficient Lithium‐Ion Batteries’ Recycling: A Perspective

Retrieving Spent Cathodes from Lithium‐Ion Batteries through Flourishing Technologies

Upcycling of spent LiCoO2 cathodes via nickel‐ and manganese‐doping

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Upcycling of spent LiCoO₂ cathodes via nickel‐ and manganese‐doping